You spoke and we listened! Today we're announcing Hegemony Gold: Wars of Ancient Greece, a major expansion to Hegemony which includes Hegemony: Philip of Macedon as well as a new diplomacy module, a sandbox mode, two new campaigns, and lots of other goodies.

Now, you're probably thinking "But Rick, a game that great must be worth a billion dollars!" And you would be right! But since we're such nice guys, we're not even asking for your firstborn child. In fact, if you've already purchased Hegemony, you can get Hegemony Gold for free!

We're planning to release Hegemony Gold in November, but why wait? You can try the alpha now! Download it here and it will install beside Hegemony: Philip of Macedon, so you don't need to worry about it screwing with your current game. The new scenarios do require a valid serial code, though, so you're probably only going to be interested in this if you've already purchased Hegemony.

The changes we've been making are based on the hundreds of conversations we've had with all of you on the forums and on our recent convention tour, so we think you'll like them, but we're only five guys, so we'd really like your help testing Hegemony Gold! Try out the alpha and let us know what you think in the forums or by emailing me directly.

Keep reading to find out what's new!

New Features:

* Two New Scenarios Based on the Peloponnesian War (Coming Soon)

* Sandbox Mode: Play as any faction on the map without objectives. (More factions coming soon).

* Dynamic Diplomacy System: Make truces and alliances between factions in the new diplomacy window.

* Revolt Tweaks: Rather than being able to eliminate revolts by tearing down walls, it now just greatly reduces the garrison needed to prevent revolts. As before, the size of the garrison is also tied to the faction's hostility but now that hostility is dynamic don't be too hasty to break an alliance because it could mean you need more revolts.

* New Population System: The global population system has been replaced with a pool of recruits local to each city that are used to build units and replace troops that are killed in battle. Units no longer recruit in the field but draw recruits from their home city when they are in resupply range of a friendly building and there is an open supply route back to their home city.

* Cavalry Charge: Cavalry now receive a combat bonus against light infantry when they can run into combat.

* Camping/Foraging: Rather than reduce food consumption, camping now produces a small amount of food so that units with high logistics can potentially recharge their food supplies in the field.

* Close to Home Bonus: Units fighting within their home city's resupply range no longer receive morale penalties and can fight to the death.

* Supply Line Upgrades: Longer supply lines can now be upgraded at a cost to act like shorter supply lines and transfer more food per week.

* Unit Stat Adjustments: Unit siege strength has been reduced to make it harder to siege well supplied cities without catapults and phalangites have been made more defensive in order to hold enemies in combat while cavalry flank and charge.

We're hoping to sneak in a few more changes before release, but we'll see if we have enough time for that.

As always, crash dumps are best emailed to Rob, or if you want to take a more proactive role, you can post your bugs here on the forums or on our bug tracker. We're also interested on your thoughts regarding the new features as well as current balance problems. Don't worry about hurting our feelings. We can take it :)

Nice to hear you are expanding. So the struggle for dominance between Lakedaimon and Athens is your new theme. Is there any difference between the gameplay of Republics and kingdoms or do you always rule like an absolute monarch? And (please excuse me if that's off topic) do you plan to exand into other classical settings like Alexander, Persia or Rome?Which features are implented in the downloadable alpha?And of course, at lastI have to lick your boots because it is a really unique and interesting game. Good job.

Fanboy, to answer your questions: Hegemony Gold includes a new diplomacy system so when playing as both Sparta and Athens in the new campaigns your kingdom is actually a set of alliances who can potentially break away if you don't hold up the terms of the alliance.

Most of the new features have been implemented in the alpha but they are pretty rough. We should have an alpha 2 out by next week that will have the features pretty much locked down.

We do have plans for a full sequel that will also have a classical setting but it's still in the planning phase and we won't be starting on it until after Hegemony Gold is finished.